Suttle Piling

Shelter Hall, Brighton Piling Installation for Seafront Revamp

Customer – CJ Thorne

Project duration – 3 weeks

When – October 2015

Type – Sheet piling, Driven piling

Overview:

Suttle Projects played a key role in an ongoing scheme to revamp a historic section of Brighton’s seafront.

Suttles’ piling expertise was called on by CJ Thorne to help reinforce part of the iconic beach promenade to enable the construction of a new walkway over a larger area.

More than 62m linear metres of sheet piling was driven with specialist silent piling equipment in order to reduce the future effects of erosion on the new infrastructure.

A Giken Japanese-type silent piler was used for the task of driving in the sheets. This machinery uses hydraulic pressure – a different technique to more conventional piling installation. This method prevented structural damage to the nearby Shelter Hall (built in the 1880s), which since 2013 has been undergoing extensive renovation.

Equipment:

Our team used four pieces of plant equipment for the job – an RTG RG16T telescopic leader rig, with drilling attachment (to loosen the ground), a Giken silent piler (to drive in the sheets), a 50-tonne crawler crane, and a Movax side grip rig (to lift and move the piles into place). The Movax proved critical in allowing work to proceed through a period of adverse weather, when the crane could not be deployed. The piled retaining wall was 94nr Arcelor-type AZ26-700 section steel sheet piles.